The Black Feminist Movement

The Feminist Movement is said to be the promoting of equality and the empowerment of all women. Feminism should support women of color, poor women, transwomen, disabled women etc. However, history has shown feminism has supported Western ideologies and the issues of White women solely. Feminism was solely built for and around White heterosexual women. The issues of women of color have always been marginalized due to racism, classism, and sexism. Black feminism and Womanism are two theories that directly stem from feminism. Black feminism empowers and supports the issues that Black women face.

The Black Feminist Movement grew out of, and in response to, the Black Liberation Movement and the Women's Movement. In an effort to meet the needs of

All too often, "black" was equated with black men and "woman" was equated with white women. As a result, black women were an invisible group whose existence and needs were ignored. The purpose of the movement was to develop theory which could adequately address the way race, gender, and class were interconnected in their lives and to take action to stop racist, sexist, and classist discrimination. (Vol. 9.1 - A History of Black Feminism in the U.S.)

The Black feminist movement is a ripple created by feminism and the Woman Movement. There was not equal representation within feminism and Black women felt they needed their own movement that catered to them. Womanism, a term indoctrinated by author and activist Alice Walker, more so centers Black feminism and the supporting of the issues of women of color as a whole. “Womanism addresses the racist and classist aspects of White feminism and actively opposes separatist ideologies. (Emma Gunde)” These terms have developed simply because feminism is not enough. Paired with White privilege and White supremacy, White women already have

While the "bow down bitches" part of the song will continue to anger literalists, those who didn’t like her anyway, as well as those that don’t think she or any Black women are “real” feminists, I rethought the application of the word and it definitely made me complicate my previously rigid perspective on “bitch.” This does not mean that saying “bitch” is a “feminist” act. The notion that each movement, thought and action Black women make has to measure up to an arbitrary feminist standard or we as a whole are no longer feminist (and when Black, usually that means no longer “human” as well, as if we’re considered human in the first place) is oppressive. There needs to be space for nuanced interpretation and contradictions, especially with cultural subtext. Otherwise recognition of Black women’s humanity and journeyed feminist progress is stifled and